Bombay High Court Refuses To Allow Change In Date Of Birth In School Record After Student Left the School

The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court recently refused to allow petitioner to change his date of birth in the school record stating that only obvious errors can be corrected after the student has left the school.

Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge and Justice Arun R. Pednekar refused to entertain a writ petition praying for change in date of birth in the school record after he had left the school.

It was the case of the petitioner that his date of birth was incorrectly recorded in at the time of his admission in the 1^st standard. The same birth date is mentioned in the school leaving certificate. Petitioner's father applied for correction of the school record and the application was forwarded to the Block Education Officer.

Petitioner obtained a direction from the Judicial Magistrate First Class under the Registration of Birth And Deaths Act, 1967 for entry of correct date of birth of the petitioner in the concerned register. The petitioner approached the High Court seeking a direction to the concerned authorities to correct his birth date in the school record.

The court noted that the issue of change of birth date in school record has been considered by the Full Bench judgement in Janabai v. State of Maharashtra. The referred to Clause 26.3 and Clause 26.4 of the Secondary School code. From a joint reading of both the clauses the court concluded that no application for alteration in the date of birth is allowed after student has left secondary school except to correct obvious mistakes. Obvious mistakes included cases where the date recorded does not exist in the calendar, and similar errors.

The court applied the Full Bench judgement in Janabai to the current case and held that the petitioner's application is not in the nature of obvious mistake and cannot be accepted. Thus, the present writ petition cannot be entertained

Case no. – Writ Petition No. 8620 of 2022

Case title – Govind Ramrao Solanke v. State of Maharashtra and Ors.

Click Here To Read/Download Judgment